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Car Next Door Launches Peer-to-Peer Car Sharing in Australia

Car Next Door officially launched in Bondi, Australia on Jan. 25 with a fleet of 22 vehicles in Bondi and Paddington. The company has received more than 100 “Car Borrower” applications since opening the service in a soft launch a few weeks ago.

The service aims to remove 100,000 under-utilized cars from Australian roads and reduce CO2 emissions, while re-building a sense of community, according to founder Will Davies.

Car Next Door conducted an informal study to determine how many cars in a typical Bondi street were being used at any one time. The study found that only 25% of the cars on Avoca Street in Bondi were in use at any one time on Jan. 19 and Jan. 21 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and the busiest time was between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m.

“We found that at its very busiest period, half of the cars sat idle,” Davies said. “That’s a lot of unnecessary or underutilized cars clogging up roads and parking spots.”